December 21, 2011

Influence Industry: Sudan hires its first U.S. lawyer in years, prompting protests

Rep Frank Wolf and Act for Sudan members protested in front of Bart Fisher’s office on Friday, December 16, 2011. The Washington Post published this recent article on Bart Fisher’s new client:

The hiring has angered U.S. human rights activists and some lawmakers because of the Sudanese regime’s history of alleged genocide and other atrocities against its citizens during a decades-long civil war. Fighting has flared again this year along the border with newly independent South Sudan, displacing an estimated 400,000 people and prompting new accusations of indiscriminate bombing and illegal killings by the Khartoum government.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), a longtime critic of the Sudanese regime, attacked Fisher in the House and during a news conference this week for agreeing to work for “a genocidal government” that “has blood on its hands.” He also said he suspected the administration may have issued a license to Fisher because of the lawyer’s past campaign contributions to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats.